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Menu bar

How to hide menu bar icons on Mac

Updated · Applies to macOS 26 Tahoe and macOS 27 Golden Gate

Short answer

Open System Settings → Menu Bar and turn off the icons you don't want under “Allow in the Menu Bar”, or hold ⌘ and drag an icon off the menu bar to remove it. To keep icons available but out of sight, use a menu bar manager.

There are three different things people mean by “hide a menu bar icon”: remove it for good, move it somewhere less prominent, or keep it available but tucked away until you need it. macOS now handles the first two itself. The third still needs an app.

1. Turn icons off in System Settings

Since macOS 26 Tahoe, System Settings has a Menu Bar pane that controls both Apple’s own items and every other app that wants a menu bar icon.

  1. Choose Apple menu → System Settings, then click Menu Bar in the sidebar.
  2. Under Menu Bar Controls, switch off Apple items you don’t need, like Bluetooth or Now Playing. Some offer Show When Active, which only shows the icon while it matters.
  3. Under Allow in the Menu Bar, switch off any app whose icon you never use. The app keeps running; it just can’t put an icon in the menu bar.

2. ⌘-drag an icon off the bar

Hold ⌘ and drag a menu bar icon down and away from the menu bar, then let go. It disappears. The same gesture rearranges icons: ⌘-drag left or right to change their order. This works for most Apple items and many third-party ones.

3. Use the app’s own setting

Many apps have a “Show in menu bar” checkbox in their settings. It’s the tidiest option when you never use an app’s icon, because the app itself stops creating it.

4. Let macOS 27 fold them away

On macOS 27 Golden Gate, when icons don’t fit (usually because the notch takes the middle of a MacBook’s menu bar), a small » arrow appears at the edge of the icons. Click it to unfold the ones that didn’t fit. It’s automatic, but you don’t choose which icons get folded: the ones furthest left go first.

If you want an icon out of sight most of the time but one click, a hover, or a shortcut away, you need a menu bar manager. These add a divider to your menu bar; icons on one side are hidden, the rest stay visible. Good ones also bring hidden icons back automatically, for example when you unplug the charger.

macOS 27 changed how the menu bar is drawn, which broke several of these apps in the first betas. Before you buy one, check that it explicitly supports the macOS version you’re on. Our guide to menu bar managers compares the current options.

Which should you use?